Second defendant pleads guilty in shooting

A second defendant pleaded guilty Thursday in a New Year’s Day gang shootout that killed a man and wounded a woman at a north Spokane bar.

Christopher Jerome Route, 18, had been charged with second-degree murder, first-degree assault with a firearm and riot in the death of rival gang member Calvin Banks, 24, and the wounding of a young woman who was standing nearby. As 20-year-old Eric Burton Jr. did earlier this month, Route pleaded guilty to two counts of second-degree assault.

Spokane County Superior Court Judge Linda Tompkins granted Route’s request for a three-week furlough so he can attend the funeral of his mother, who died Tuesday in Southern California. First, though, he must deal with a pending domestic assault charge in Spokane Municipal Court.

Route faces a standard range of 12 to 14 months in prison when he is sentenced on May 12.

The prosecutor’s office agreed to recommend a year, the same sentence Burton received.

Prosecutors also agreed not to charge Route with possession of marijuana with intent to deliver.

Assistant Public Defender Jeff Leslie said Route’s role in the shooting was “minimal.”

Route was charged with murder under a rule that allows murder charges if a victim dies in the course of some other felony, such as riot.

Police say the man who actually killed Banks was Route’s cousin, Demetrius C. Route, 18. Demetrius Route is tentatively scheduled for trial on Sept. 12.

Christopher and Demetrius Route, Burton and other members of a Compton, Calif., gang allegedly went to the Crazy 8’s bar at 21 E. Lincoln Road, just off North Division, in search of Banks.

Police say Banks’ gang, which originated in Arkansas, had a long-running dispute with the Compton, Calif., gang to which the Route cousins, Burton and other defendants belong.

Officers said members of the Banks’ gang returned fire, accidentally grazing the neck of a young woman who was standing nearby.